Month: September 2008

I have to agree with Fred Kaplan:

Let’s get real. If a Democratic candidate had picked such an off-the-wall running mate, the Republicans—Giuliani, Gingrich, and Gaffney among them—would be howling with derision. And rightly so.

After last night’s national debut, here’s another speech by Palin in the Assemblies Of God church she grew up in. (Have we ever had a president from the Assemblies of God before?) She comes across as a charismatic, Pentecostalist charmer in favor of the Iraq war as part of God’s plan. Track has a Jesus tattoo on his calf, by the way. My favorite quote: "Y’all are a bunch of cool-looking Christians." Her pastor speaks after her of the "last days" when the lower 48 states may have to seek refuge in Alaska. This governor is on a path, by her own testimony, that is being guided by God. When you see this clip, you can see evangelical Christianism coming ever closer to the White House. The more I learn about her, the more you realize that she is indeed the future of the Republican party – evangelical Christianity is now the core philosophy of the GOP:

The second half of the sermon is after the jump:

Fallows re-states the risk of the path McCain is going down as epitomized by Palin’s speech:

I’ve learned through the years that it’s very hard to judge political turning points in real time. But my guess is that the last twelve hours will be seen as the moment when McCain pushed all his chips into the pot to bet on a "mobilize the base" strategy. Given the fundamental math in this election year, that would also be the moment when it became very hard for him to win.

Alex Massie writes:

Andrew Sullivan concludes his live-blogging of Sarah Palin’s speech with an exasperated sigh: "Reality television has become our politics." Perhaps. More likely, politics has been a reality TV show since before John Logie Baird invented the damn goggle box. Because, yes, you choose the candidate you like best or the one that has impressed you most after a long, painfully drawn out period of interrogation, speculation and hype. Just like on American Idol. That is the way it works. Talent matters, but it’s not enough without personality, authenticity, charm, something else… Of course Andrew’s so committed to Obama that it’s unlikely Palin could have done anything to convince him she’s not painfully out of her depth.

I’m committed to Obama because I think he is the best pick at this point in American and world history. I made my core argument a long time ago now and I still believe every word of it. What I have learned since then is that Obama has an astonishing level of competence and skill and judgment in a klieglight of public scrutiny unlike almost any presidential candidate who has come before him. We’ll see how Palin compares as someone new on the scene in the coming days and weeks.

And, for the record, I didn’t think Palin was "painfully out of her depth" last night. She was actually well in her comfort zone: in front of a roaring crowd of partisans with a speech written by someone else with expectations set up nicely. My concern is that she is objectively out of her depth on the fundamental issue in this election, specifically foreign policy.

I mean: how many times has there been a potential war-time president in office who has no record of even any interest in foreign affairs two months before a presidential election? She heard about the surge "on the news" two years ago and wasn’t focused on it enough to be able to talk at any length about it. I just don’t understand how neocons obsessed, allegedly, with the war in Iraq as indidspensable to national security could glady endorse this person as someone who could take over at any moment next January. Unless they are even hollower and shallower than I have come to understand.

And how many times has a vice-presidential candidate actually opposed on the record the core strategy of her running mate in foreign policy in wartime without anyone even debating the matter? In December 2006, she wanted an exit plan from Iraq. McCain has based his entire campaign – understandably – on the surge.

This pick makes no sense unless you see it as a deeply cynical attempt to win over Clinton voters which has become, whether McCain wanted it or not, an entirely culture-war Rovian pick, designed to unite the base against "the left" and "the media" and to make a total ban on all abortion even more central a feature of the GOP platform. The pick’s cynicism and cultural warfare make Palin the epitome of everything that is rotten in the current Republican leadership.

Northport, Michigan, 12.25 pm.

"Whatever the merits of the whole Edwards love child story, are we really supposed to believe that one of America’s most famous trial lawyers wouldn’t sue a publication that printed defamatory and slanderous lies about him? Also, it’s worth pointing out that while the Enquirer may or may not be scrupulous in its choice of stories — that’s in the eye of the beholder — it is pretty scrupulous about its facts. They win lawsuits. They’ve broken a host of stories the MSM guys couldn’t," – Jonah Goldberg, NRO, July 24.

He was right, wasn’t he?

Frum loved the speech, but he is still worried. Like the few other conservative thinkers still prepared to think outside party orthodoxy (Ponnuru, Brookhiser, Noonan, Brooks), Frum cuts to the chase here:

From the beginning, the internal controversy (such as it is) over Sarah Palin has been a controversy not about Palin herself, but about John McCain. What kind of a decision-maker is he? How much information and consideration does he bring to bear?

If John McCain gambled on Palin without adequate research and preparation, the fact that he won his gamble does not reassure me very much. Gamblers sometimes do win. But the longer they play, the more they lose.

He hasn’t won this gamble yet.

(Photo: James Watson/Getty.)

Larison is depressed:

With all respect to Gov. Palin, who delivered an effective stemwinder that had a number of amusing lines in it, the conditioned responses that conservatives are having to Palin’s speech is frankly depressing.  For all of their complaints and criticisms about McCain’s deviations, conservatives are now falling into line even more pathetically than usual.  Seeing this display, I am tempted to think that even Giuliani could have won the nomination, chosen a similar running mate and nothing would have changed.

They are a religious and cultural identity party, primed to rally to anything their leaders say and question nothing. That’s why they’re so dangerous.

They can do anything and defend it – invade a country on false pretenses, grind the military into extreme danger, trash the Geneva Conventions, expand government at a record pace, threaten war with Iran and Russia – and still say with a straight face that they are the party of national security, fiscal restraint, foreign policy wisdom and military pride. It doesn’t matter what they do; these people believe in this cause because it is about God and America and their own identity. And when you have a major political party constructed like that, they can do anything. And they have.

Like Ross, Megan argues that Democrats should act as if Palin doesn’t exist.

Contra my Democratic friends, I’m not sure that voters will see "But McCain really might die in office!" as a bug, rather than a feature.

Ross gives some free advice to Democrats:

Do not attack [Palin]. Stop referring to her as a just a small-town mayor and a neophyte governor who’s unqualified to be President; in fact, stop referring to her at all. Attack John McCain, John McCain, and John McCain. Attack him all day, all night, and on weekends too. Behave as though Sarah Palin does not exist. Pray that the media will find some Palin-related scandal even more shocking than the perfervid theories aired this week (they’ll be looking for one, no doubt), and in the event that they fail to do so, do not under any circumstances allow yourselves to be drawn any deeper into a debate (which the McCain campaign plainly wants to have) over the relative qualifications and accomplishments of Barack Obama and the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

I agree with the basic point here.

The entire political import of the Palin pick is what it says about McCain. And the Democratic candidates have been very shrewd in their handling of Palin so far.

But the fourth estate is different. Our job is to ferret out the truth, regardless of its political impact. An almost total unknown must be examined as closely as we can. Because McCain didn’t vet his veep, others will have to. Because McCain barely interviewed the person he thinks should take over the government if the worst happened to him, the press’s continued, aggressive questioning of her is essential. This is still a democracy. The people, including the press, do not owe leaders deference. They owe the people deference – and a willingness to provide any relevant facts the press asks for promptly.